>Music: The Genius/Comic Stylings of John Mayer

I love John Mayer. Besides being criminally talented, he’s a pretty funny guy too. In response to Kanye’s attempts to expand beyond hip-hop with 808s & Heartbreak, Mayer has decided to take a foray into hip-hop. His de/reconstruction of the break he chooses isn’t actually bad but it’s his choice of lyrics that crack me up, summing up the essence of half the hip-hop and R&B songs floating around the charts these days.

Oh, and if you don’t know about Mayer’s guitar skills then check out his take on a popular Timberlake/Timbaland collaboration. Mad skills:

>What, you never saw Chapelle’s analysis of the respective effects of drums and guitars on blackfolk and whitefolk? Just kidding.Although rock has its roots in Blues (which in turn has very African roots), rock music in its modern forms isn’t particularly African, I guess. Nevertheless, there are quite a few black rockers from Hendrix, Kravitz, Fishbone, Bad Brains, Kele Okereke of Bloc Party and the like to Tinariwen right here on our continent.PLaylist on Al-Jazeera are running an interesting feature this week on a Kenyan-American rock group called Extra Golden. Check it: http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/playlist/2008/09/200891891658335703.html